Holes.

Vegas or bust?…Bust, mostly. Let’s just say the best part of the trip this year was the two hours we spent at the Shark Reef…now that was cool beans. In fact, I think I had what amounts to a spiritual experience–as close as I get anymore to said experience–way down in the “ship wreck” room, in the darkest hole of the reef tank. You walk into this Disneyfied room that’s made to look like a sunken ship, complete with hull-like curved glass walls and glass floors, and the ship prow “sticking out” into the tank itself…and so sharks and fish and sea turtles are swimming over, under, and around you. Oh, and there are sound effects. As if you’re under water. Which you are, of course, but it’s so disorienting that you have the momentary impression that you’re actually swimming with the fishes (so to speak), not just walking through them.

Anyway, so there I was, down in the deep hole, and the sandbar sharks are swimming by inches from my face, and their skin catches the light and is…surreal. Just. So. Beautiful. It’s silver and metallic and shiny soft gray, but with a very slight–slight–hint of pink underneath. It made me draw my breath in very fast. If I could, I would say sharkskin is my favorite color. But then you would think I sounded hungry (in an exotic locale sort-of-way). Or nuts.

The Bee had fun, too. This exhibit had a lot fewer people wandering through than the National Aquarium we visited in July, although it didn’t have dolphins. Just predators. Lionfish, jellyfish…

piranha, barracuda, water monitor, crocodiles. She got to be very close up to the animals for a long time…

Otherwise, the trip was stressful. Drive stress on the way there, involving some wackadoo who hit a utility pole and dragged it into the highway right in front of us. Work stress for R., including a weeping employee at lunch. Palate stress for Mama. It looks like The Bee has a tiny fistula, right in the middle of her palate. Sometimes these re-heal themselves. Sometimes they don’t. At the moment I am desperately trying to keep food from getting stuck in it. Can anyone say Water Pik? Saline drops? Squirting water bottles? Hot liquids?

Some holes are better than others.

The Bee, on the other hand, spent her hotel time lounging in front of her beloved Signing Time DVDs…